In the present chapter we have to deal, not with the formation or development of a distinct style, but with a germ, if 1 may so describe it, from which grew a certain and not unimportant phase of a style which will presently occupy our most serious attention. My comments for the moment will, therefore, be brief and to the point.

In the year 1744, a youth of eighteen, William Chambers by name, was registered as supercargo to the Swedish East India Company, and, during the course of his wanderings, travelled much in China. Being artistically disposed, he made special note of the architecture, both interior and exterior, which he saw in that country. Later, he settled in England, adopted architecture as his profession, became F.R.S. and F.R.A.S., Treasurer of the Royal Academy, and Knight of the Polar Star of Sweden, and was responsible for the design of a number of important buildings, notable amongst which stands Somerset House.

With the career of Sir William Chambers we need not concern ourselves; we will only note his predilections for the "Chinese" in architecture. So pleased was he with much that he saw and sketched in the "Land of the Sun," that he afterwards published his notes in book form; and further, when called upon to prepare schemes for the improvement of the royal residences at Kew, he produced some Anglo-Chinese atrocities which gave great satisfaction to his distinguished patrons. They apparently satisfied the architect himself as well, for they were afterwards reproduced in book form. In the ranks of contemporary architects this "Chinese" work of Chambers aroused some antagonism and much criticism, but he was prepared to defend his proceedings. He wrote: "Though I am publishing a work of Chinese architecture, let it not be suspected that my intention is to promote a taste so much inferior to the Antique and so,,very unfit for our climate; but a particular so interesting as the architecture of one of the most extraordinary nations in the universe cannot be a matter of indifference to the true lover of the arts . . ." Again, he says: "I cannot conclude without observing that several of my good friends have endeavoured to dissuade me from publishing this work, through a persuasion that it would hurt my reputation as an architect; and I pay so much deference to their opinion that I certainly should have desisted had it not been too far advanced before I knew their sentiments; yet I cannot conceive why it should be criminal in a traveller to give an account of what he has seen worthy of notice in China, any more than in Italy, France, or any other country; nor do I think it possible that any man should be so void of reason as to infer that an architect is ignorant in his profession merely from his having published designs of Chinese buildings."

Notwithstanding these protestations, and in face of all adverse criticism, he coquetted with his pagodas, dragons, and bells, and endeavoured to bring them into harmony with our Western requirements. All the while he kept the originals steadfastly in view.

In his description of the interior of a Chinese palace, he tells us: "The movables of the saloon consist of chairs, stools, and tables, made sometimes of rosewood, ebony, or lacquered work, and sometimes in bamboo only, which is cheap, and, nevertheless, very neat. When the movables are of wood, the seats of the stools are often of marble or porcelain, which, though hard to sit on, are far from being unpleasant in a climate where the summer heats are excessive."

With such furnishings in his mind he set to work to produce something on the same lines, with the results shown on the two plates in this chapter. Of the examples here illustrated, all that I need say is that they are not such as would be likely ever to appeal very strongly to English tastes; that the chairs are flimsy in appearance, and suitable only for production in cane or bamboo; and, finally, that all seem to indicate that the designer responsible for them was not blessed with an extensive knowledge of the technicalities of either cabinet-construction or chair making.

Chambers. II. Plate 31

Reference in Text. See pages 91-93

It only remains to state here that a noted English designer, Thomas Chippendale, became greatly interested in Chambers's "Chinese" extravagances, studied them, and came to the conclusion that, in the proper hands, something might be done in that direction. By its admission to the homes of royalty a certain demand seemed to have been created for such work. Chippendale consequently took them in hand; and what he made of them is fully demonstrated in my next chapter. This is my plea of justification for the inclusion in these pages of a note of Sir William Chambers's "Chinese" efforts.